THE HOME DEPOT U.S.A.

The Vault Review

Uppers

Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement chain and the second-largest U.S. retailer (after Walmart), is known as a stable place to work.

Downers

Home Depot must improve its customer service and figure out how to raise morale among its store-level employees, many of whom feel overworked and underpaid.

The Bottom Line

The Atlanta-based company employs 321,000 workers at about 2,200 stores and is ranked No. 30 on Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 American-based companies. It's doing a lot of the right things to attract and retain customers during a difficult economy, but it needs to continue to improve or Lowe's will gain ground.

Quality Of Life

Many Home Depot employees admire the company and thinks it's on
the right track, but store-level employees complain that the
work-life balance there is difficult. Salaried employees say they
are expected to work 50 to 60 hours a week, and hourly employees
complain that ever-changing work...